Day of the Dinosaurs
by elleflies
Summary: Having originally aimed for 1920's Kansas, the Doctor and Rose are wildly off course when the TARDIS sets them down in the Jurassic, but dinosaurs aren't the only threat they'll face in the Earth's far distant past.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: I fully intended to be a sideline viewer to The Altverse but certain people running it weren't having any of my excuses and I got shanghaied into it. I'm trying not to look at this as merely being hijacked but more like a chance to promote my Dinosaur Agenda. For a show about time travel, Doctor Who is woefully lacking in Dinos. (I'll tip my hat to the classic series, they at least tried… but c'mon New Who!). This is just one story amongst many written by a diverse group of people for an alternative season of Doctor Who set in Pete's world.

* * *

He'd just wanted to milk a cow.

"Cows, Rose!" the Doctor enthused, dancing around the console, twirling and flicking switches as he went. "One of the foundations of human society. Without cows, who knows where the human race would be?" he said as he draped himself over the console and tried to hit a switch with his trainer.

Rose flipped the switch for him.

"Of course, I know what would've happened if some human back at the dawn of civilization hadn't thought 'Cows? Marvelous!' but for everyone else it's just conjecture."

The TARDIS landed with a jolt, sending both of her occupants flying around the console room. Rose clambered to her feet, smoothed her dress out and followed the Doctor back to the console, teeth worrying her lip.

"So Doctor, care to tell me why I look like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz?" Rose asked.

"Because of the cows!"

Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Are these highly evolved cows that are going to make me a fashion model on their planet of cow couture?"

"Really Rose, do be serious," the Doctor said. Rose leveled a look at him and he darted out of her arms, waving his hand at the closed TARDIS door. "Outside is the great state of Kansas. It is the year 1923, the depression hasn't yet hit and this is the breadbasket of the United States. They also have cows; which I am going to milk."

Rose bounced on her feet. "Now this I have to see," she said.

"That's the spirit!"

Rose looped her arm through his and laughed as he rambled on about wheat fields as far as the eye could see, tornados, and how he hoped he'd get to eat corn on the cob.

He gestured her forward, and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS. She immediately recoiled as a large scaly creature that had been snooping around the exterior of the blue box shrieked at her, displaying a rather impressive array of teeth. She backpedaled right into the Doctor, knocking him back into the ship and slamming the door behind her.

"Rose?"

"Doctor, I think you need to ask the TARDIS _where_ we are, and make sure you landed us _when_ you should have."

"Rose, really, I'm sure I got this one right, 1920's Kansas isn't that hard!"

Rose put her hands on her hips and glared until the Doctor slunk back to the console and started typing furiously at the computer screen. "Right," she announced, "while you're getting where we are sorted, I'm changing. Wandering around in this dress may have been good enough for Dorothy, but I'll stick to my jeans and trainers. I should've known better then to change _before_ we'd landed."

The Doctor barely noticed, as he was far too busy mumbling to himself.

Rose returned to find a far less bouncy Doctor glaring at the console from the jump seat. His hair was a mess, and Rose couldn't resist running her hands through it, enjoying his reaction as he leaned towards her and tilted his head into her hands. "How far off are we?" she asked.

"Well," the Doctor started.

"That far off?"

The Doctor jumped up and was at the door in a few long strides, Rose following along in his wake. "I'm just a little off, just a teensy tiny itty bitty practically infinitesimal bit."

"Hmm, so we aren't in Kansas anymore?" Rose asked.

"No, not as such. We are in North America though! I guess you could say we're in Canada. Maybe, possibly… I think."

"You think?"

The Doctor swung the door open, took a step out and gestured grandly. "Welcome to the Jurassic! We are roughly 150 million years in the past, swanning about in the Kimmeridgian Age. Here be dinosaurs, Rose!"

The scaly creature with the teeth had apparently scampered off, and Rose was able to take in the view without the threat of getting eaten. It was gorgeous; the TARDIS had materialized in a forest clearing, but unlike any forest she had ever seen. Giant conifer trees and ferns towered over them, giving the environment an alien beauty. It was hard to believe that this was still Earth.

The Doctor was grinning at her and bouncing on his feet. "Doctor," Rose said, smiling at him with her tongue between her teeth.

"Yes, Rose?" he replied.

"You really are a rubbish driver."

"Oh pshaw!" he said, looking slightly offended.

"No, really," Rose said with a laugh. "I think you should leave it to the professionals next time."

A smile lit up the Doctor's face. "As long as it's with you."

Rose bumped her shoulder into his. "No cows, though."

"I don't know how I'll survive. I guess I'll have to make do with dinosaurs!" the Doctor said.

The Doctor pulled her away from the ship and into the ferns. They ambled together through the trees; hands clasped as they simply enjoyed being in a new place.

"So, Doctor, shouldn't we be taking precautions? I'm as excited as you are but I don't fancy being the afternoon snack for a T-Rex," Rose said.

He tutted. "Don't worry! This is the Jurassic, not the Cretaceous, unless there's a T-Rex that has become very temporally misplaced, you're more likely to be eaten by an Allosaurus."

"Well that's fine then. I much rather fancy being an Allosaurus snack then I do a T-Rex nibble."

"No chance of that!" he said. The Doctor pulled his hand from hers and started digging through his suit jacket, his arm disappearing almost up to the elbow. "I made this up while you were in the wardrobe," he said, producing a mechanical gadget the size of a matchbox that had a string threaded through it. "Nifty little trick, perception filters–making you think you haven't seen something when you really have—but it doesn't work all that well on predators with a sharp sense of smell; so I fiddled a bit, a few improvements here and there, and presto!" He draped the string around her neck, and tucked it into her top. "We shouldn't be noticed. This will allow us to wander about as we please, without the threat of becoming someone's lunch."

Rose smiled. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

The Doctor laughed and pulled her farther into the conifer forest. Rose followed along eagerly; craning her head around, trying to catch all there was to see.

Little flying creatures would occasionally flit by, but too fast for her to really get a good look, and loud calls and shrieks could be heard farther into the forest. The Doctor was striding forward with purpose, as if he knew exactly where he was going.

Rose threaded her fingers tighter through his, and drew him back so he was walking alongside her. "Got a hot date I don't know about?" she asked.

The Doctor looked at her blankly.

"Why the rush?" Rose clarified.

"Oh." He swung their hands together between them. "If I'm right, and I think I am, then the view up ahead should be brilliant."

"Impress me then," she told him.

He smiled and this time no pulling was necessary as Rose kept pace with the Doctor's ground eating strides. Already she could tell the forest around her was changing, the thick conifers were becoming less dense and sunlight was streaming through the gaps in the trees, giving the whole scene a dreamlike quality. There were noises up ahead–noises coming from what she hoped where _very_ large animals. Rose could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she and the Doctor broke through the tree line, and they found themselves standing on a ridge.

A valley full of dinosaurs lay below them.

It was all Rose could do not to gasp. A massive herd of long-necked dinosaurs were ambling along the valley floor: their long necks sweeping the ground, their limbs like moving tree trunks, and long tails cracking through the air like whips. Rose could feel the thunder of their movements reverberating through her body.

"Apatosaurus," the Doctor whispered in her ear. "Not the brightest of creatures but certainly one of the biggest. Their tails are so long and thin that when they move them with enough force the tip breaks the sound barrier." He grinned, "I guess you could say that these would be the Jurassic equivalent of a cow! See, Rose, right on target!"

Rose rolled her eyes.

The Doctor pouted. "It still counts!"

One of the larger members of the herd swung its head towards the Doctor and Rose, and gave them a placid look before turning its attention back to where it was going.

Rose and the Doctor continued along the ridge, paralleling the herd as it passed beside them. They came to a lake in the middle of the valley, and she found the assortment of creatures coming and going from it astounding. Some of them Rose could name by sight, others were completely alien to her. There were a few she was sure the Doctor was just making up names for as he pointed them out.

They hiked through the valley for the better part of the morning, and as the sun moved higher in the sky, Rose's stomach began to grumble. However, the Doctor had anticipated her needs. He dug through the pockets of his jacket, producing two sandwiches, two bananas and two bottles of water. They sat down by the base of a large fern, enjoying a makeshift picnic lunch.

The sun beat down hot on them as Rose finished off her banana. The Doctor had already finished inhaling his food, and was enjoying an afternoon nap—his head pillowed in Rose's lap as her free hand was gently running through his hair. The Doctor looked supremely content and Rose couldn't help but admire the way the sun brought out the freckles on his face.

A sudden roar made her jump; further down the valley, a small, long-necked dinosaur was being harassed by four creatures resembling the T-Rex. Perhaps they were Allosauruses, she guessed.

The long neck was shuffling off as fast as he could, and swinging his tail at the pursuers. In an effort to deter them, Rose thought.

The gang of fierce predators were obviously too hungry to be scared off, and they darted as close as they could with teeth and claws. The long neck's pitiful cries were heart-wrenching and Rose couldn't help but root for him as he swung his hindquarters around as quickly as he could, tail still making frantic cracking sounds in the air.

Rose breathed a sigh of relief when the long neck was thankfully swallowed up and protected by his herd. The Allosaurus pack had no choice but to give up the chase in the face of a massive wall of flesh,

Rose looked down at the Doctor who was squinting in the midday sun. "Tony would've loved this."

"Oh, no doubt. What kid wouldn't?"

"And what about you? Napping through most of it!" Rose playfully scolded him. "Who'd have ever thought?"

The Doctor smiled at her and wrapped his hand around her knee. "Boys grow up, and there are some things they love more than dinosaurs."

Rose ran both hands through his hair. "It's good to know where I stand in the spectrum of things the Doctor loves: right in front of dinosaurs."

He pouted at her dramatically and she laughed, digging through her pockets for her super phone.

She leaned back against the massive fern, listening to the phone ring until a familiar voice answered. "Mum!" Rose said when Jackie picked up. "You'll never guess where we are!"

"And I'm not going to guess," Jackie replied, "You can tell me yourself when you get around to it."

Rose ignored her response. "The Jurassic!"

"He take you to a theme park then?" Jackie asked.

"No, Mum, the real Jurassic. With actual dinosaurs!" Rose exclaimed.

"I can only imagine the trouble you two are going to get into there," Jackie sighed. "Just be careful, love. Him too."

"Mum, it's fine, they aren't even paying attention to us," Rose said, then pausing. "Listen Mum, would you put Tony on? I think he'd love to hear about this."

She could hear the telly blaring in the background as her mum handed the phone over to her little brother.

"'Ello?" Tony said.

"Tony! I've got something to tell you," Rose said, her smile almost broad enough to bleed into her voice, if one was listening carefully.

"What's that?" Tony answered, sounding somewhat distracted.

"The Doctor and I were just on a picnic, and there were dinosaurs! We just watched an Allosaurus attack a—" she paused, and looked down at the Doctor briefly.

"Camarasaurus," the Doctor said.

"That's right, a Camarasaurus."

"Mmmhmmm," Tony replied.

"Don't you want to hear about it?" She asked, surprised at his disinterest.

"I'm watching telly, Rose."

"Oh," Rose said, taken aback. "Should I ring back later then?"

Tony hummed noncommittally, and was quick to say goodbye, not even bothering to turn the phone back over to her mother, just hanging up on her instead.

The Doctor had risen from his reclined position and was on his knees looking at her when she returned the phone to her pocket. "Little boys will be little boys, Rose. Very easily distracted," he said.

"Isn't that the truth?" She grinned at him. "Case in point right here..."

"Oi!"

They stood up, Rose taking the Doctor's hand and walking ahead wherever she wished. For all the Doctor's promises that his little matchbox filter would work, being completely out in the open like this made her nervous. They might not get eaten, but there was still the definite possibility of being squished. Rose skirted the tree line, and the Doctor jumped back into his role as tour guide with relish, pointing out some of the smaller animals that inhabited this world—and that the small ones were in fact, outnumbering the large ones.

As a flock of brightly colored archaeopteryx swooped overhead, Rose couldn't help but look at the man standing next to her—she'd promised him forever once. Different planet, different animals, but oh-so similar. She may not have been able to give that Doctor forever, but she was determined to give it to this one. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"They're beautiful, Doctor. All of this is so amazing."

He laughed. "Good old Earth, constantly reinventing herself, coming up with new forms all the time! Today it's the dinosaurs—thriving, living, fighting, mating and dying—living on the top of the food chain. So many diverse species; and who would've ever thought that it'd be the tiny little mammals living in their shadows that would be the ones to win the evolutionary jackpot? They're just primitive rodents right now, but in millions of years they'll be the ones who will look up at the sky and think 'What if?' They will be the ones who spread out across the universe, and survive to the very end. Even asteroids couldn't do you lot in!"

Rose snickered. "Don't look now Doctor, but I think you're part of that lot."

"Eh, it takes some getting used to, but I think I'll manage." The Doctor fidgeted a bit, and looked away from her.

An Archaeopteryx flew above their heads, and shrieked at them right before swooping back into the trees. The Doctor had instinctually ducked at the sight, and one hand was protectively ruffling his hair. "We must be near her nest for her to act that way." He straightened himself up and Rose grinned at the image of him all flustered with embarrassment but still trying to act nonchalant.

"Don't worry, Doctor," she said, laughing at the look on his face. "I'll protect you from those nervous mothers. God knows I've done plenty of it as is."

The Doctor sputtered as the nervous mother in question made a second pass, screaming with anger and causing both of them to duck as her talons slashed through the air above their heads. She swooped around a third time and Rose looked towards the forest as she disappeared again.

"I think that may be our cue to keep moving," the Doctor said.

Rose's fingers plucked at his suit jacket "Wait a tic, Doctor," she said.

There was something off about the patch of forest the Archaeopteryx had disappeared into—something tickling at her subconscious. She shifted her position and shaded her eyes against the bright glare of the sun.

She pushed into the brush, pushing plants out of her way, and there, right there! The familiar glint of metal: metal where there should be none.

As she scrambled towards whatever it was she could hear the Doctor behind her, cursing and carrying on about her tendency to wander off, Rose smiled, because the Doctor knew just what she was like, just as she knew he would always follow.

When Rose reached her destination it looked like someone had set a plane engine down in the middle of the forest. The breeze ghosted through the metal cylinder lazily, as it turned a pair of turbines. The Archaeopteryx squawked angrily and circled overhead, finally perching on one of the struts where she clearly had built her nest and ruffled her feathers indignantly at them.

"Well now, what have we here?" the Doctor said, catching up with her and running his hands over the writing that had been etched into what looked like a control box underneath the body of the machine.

"I can't read it," Rose said "Doctor?"

He whipped out his glasses, and began doing a circuit of the machine. "This shouldn't be here."

"What is it?"

"It's for mining," he replied. "A machine like this... it was never meant to be used on a world with anything still living. They were designed to be used in the void of space—on inanimate meteoroids and dead planets. It shouldn't be here and yet it is. It shouldn't even work in this environment!" He pulled the sonic out and unlocked the control box, murmuring to himself as he poked and prodded at the circuits and wires. "Ahh, I see what you've done. Very clever. Destructive, but clever."

Rose peered over his shoulder. "Someone put this here for a reason, and they've modified it," the Doctor told her. "Modified it for use on inhabited planets. This machine is used for making great big holes in a asteroid or planet, and testing for mineral wealth." he whipped off his specs and stuck them in his jacket pocket. "It's the vanguard for something much worse."

"Can we do something? Destroy it? Sabotage it? Anything!" Rose said.

The Doctor ruffled his hair and started pacing. "There are going to be more, lots more. This machine won't work by itself, it needs the others, and destroying just this one won't affect the others. These things are designed to be cheap and effective, easily replaceable. We'd have to find and stop a third of these things for it not to work, and they'll be spread out around the valley for kilometers." He stared up at the lazily spinning turbines. "They'd be monitoring the tests... It's usually done in ships, but this group has probably set up camp somewhere close by. We're better off finding the mining camp, and trying to stop all of them from there."

"And what happens if we don't?"

"This valley will be in ruins at the very least. If the tests come back looking good—and this is the Earth, I _know_ they will—you can bet the ship that's following will break the Earth to bits to get at what's inside. It will be the end, for every single thing that calls this planet home."

Rose could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She took the Doctor's hand and squeezed. "Good thing we're here then, yeah? Rose Tyler and the Doctor: defenders of Earth."

He squeezed back and started fiddling with the sonic, scrolling through settings. "The camp will be bursting with tech—easily traceable tech." The sonic beeped and the Doctor grinned. He grabbed Rose's hand and together they set off deeper into the forest, leaving the mother archaeopteryx still perched on the machine, feathers ruffling in anger.

The mining camp was close enough to the valley to monitor their equipment, but far enough away to make getting there more of a trek then Rose had anticipated. They'd started out at a run, but had tapered off into a brisk walk once the distances involved became even more apparent.

Even the Doctor was looking slightly winded as they worked their way towards the source of the tech the sonic had picked up. He was almost single-minded in his desire to get there, and more then a few times Rose had to prod him around an errant fern instead of letting him walk right into it.

The gloom of the forest was fading away, the trees becoming smaller, their branches letting more light in, and Rose shuddered–eager to get away from such a closed-off space and back into the sun.

The Doctor muttered under his breath and held the sonic aloft for a moment, listening intently to its chirping. Rose wiped the sweat off her forehead and plucked at her cotton t-shirt, trying to create a cooling breeze to no avail.

"This way!" the Doctor shouted, dashing off along a barely visible path through the underbrush. Rose was right on his heels as their time in the forest came to an abrupt, and startling end when they charged onto the shores of a prehistoric beach.

The sun was blinding, but the Doctor made for an easily recognizable figure–all his brown was visible against the pale of the sand; and Rose was not going to let him out of her sight.

When she caught up, the Doctor was throwing himself down along the ridge of a dune and then peered out over it. Rose crashed down next to him, and checked out at what he was looking at so intently.

They had found the camp.

It looked as if a safari had set up in the Jurassic. Heavy canvas tents appeared to be the only form of shelter the aliens were using, the large camp was perfectly still in the heat of the day–not even insects seemed to be flying near their base.

Unlike where they were, Rose thought as she swatted at a fly that kept trying to land on her arm.

"Oh, this is not good," the Doctor said. "Tecalians. Just like I thought."

"And who're the Tecalians, when they're at home Doctor?"

"At this time? They are the single most powerful race in the Milky Way. They have an empire spanning an enormous amount of star systems and much like humans they constantly need, need, need. They're a race of consumers—food, water, entertainment—they can find a use for just about anything," the Doctor said.

"The problem with using anything, is that you tip into the annoying little problem of overuse. You use and abuse to the point that it doesn't exist anymore and then it's a fat lot of good to nobody. So the Tecalians, clever lot that they are, have a rather strict set of rules governing what can and cannot be used. A planet like Earth, with all its mineral and ecological wealth is off-limits. Which means that this lot is breaking the rules."

"So we stop them," Rose said.

"We stop them," the Doctor agreed. "But how?"

The Doctor levered himself up on his arms and dug his toes into the sand dune, propelling himself up and over and skidding down to the bottom, and Rose followed. He was about to dash off towards the encampment when Rose grabbed his arm.

"What's your plan, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Besides stop them?" the Doctor quipped. Rose gave him a _look_. He grumbled.

"From the looks of things, they've got triple-phased shields protecting the camp. Keeps all the critters, little and large, from running rampant in their the tents and feasting to their hearts content." He pulled her behind the stump of a tree and crouched down. "Great shields for protection–but absolutely rubbish when you need to break in. Should be easy enough." He flicked a pebble and Rose watched as it hit an invisible barrier and rebounded back. He scrolled through the settings on the sonic and hummed to himself, completely caught up in the problem at hand.

"So get through the shields, get to the control center and disable the equipment controlling the test, yeah?" Rose summed up.

The Doctor grinned. "Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!"

The sonic beeped and the Doctor stood up. "I can get us through the shields, but I'm going to need you to hang on." He positioned her arms around his neck, the sonic held securely at the small of her back as it buzzed and chirped. The Doctor quickly kissed her nose. "Ready?"

"Always," Rose answered.

He walked backwards towards the barrier and was the first to pass through, Rose still wrapped around him. There was a slight feeling of pressure, as if she were passing through a thin membrane; and then a shimmer before her eyes and they were through, the Doctor wasting no time as he ducked behind the nearest tent.

It was empty, and so were the others. They crept through the camp, keeping low and out of sight of the still-unseen Tecalians.

At the center of the compound was a more substantial structure—looking more like a prefabricated building than a tent, tubes snaking out of its side that were attached to what looked like antennae. The sonic chirped in the Doctor's hand. "Well, this will be it. The control center where all their fiddly-whatsits and technological thingamabobs will be telling them all kinds of interesting things about what good old Mother Earth is hiding in her underparts."

Rose eyed the building. "We could try sneaking in. Maybe pretend to be part of the crew?

Just then the door opened with a thunk, and an alien stepped out. It was orange and looked somewhat cat-like—if the cat were a Persian that had swapped out its nose for a flap. It was wearing nothing but a utility belt, slung low around its furry hips. Narrow, tapered fingers ended in what looked like claws. The creature fished around in the belt; and took out what appeared to be a cigarette, but was fatter and rounder. The alien puffed away blissfully, unaware of the hidden audience.

"I don't think we'll be doing much in the way of fitting in," the Doctor murmured, but then perking up a bit. Rose could practically see the gears in his head turning. "This way! I've got an idea," he said.

The Doctor darted back into the maze of tents, choosing one at random and ducking inside. Rose followed, and found him tearing through the personal objects around a nest-looking bed.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon it's gotta be here," the Doctor said.

"Doctor..." Rose started.

"Aha!" he exclaimed as he pulled out a black slab the size of a notebook from underneath the bed. The Doctor twirled the sonic once before zapping the slab, stopping only to grin at her as the slab lit up and beeped back at him. "Computer-obsessed cultures are all the same," the Doctor said. "They always leave their toys just laying about for anyone to pick up and play with. Why cart it everywhere with you, when you've got multiples, eh?"

The Doctor's fingers flew over the slab as the text scrolled across the screen. Rose crouched down next to him and peered at the diagrams and text coming and going at a rapid rate as the Doctor scanned through the information the pad contained.

"And we, Rose Tyler, are in luck! This lovely little machine has a direct connection to their mainframe," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"Meaning we can see what they can?" Rose asked.

"Exactolutely!"

The Doctor paused and looked briefly cross with himself. Muttered something under his breath about never saying that in public again.

He quickly recovered before Rose could say anything, launching right back into his previous train of thought. "We can also, if I am oh so good, persuade the computer that it's already carried out their little mining exercise. And if we are even luckier, I could perhaps convince it that the Earth has absolutely nothing of value, and that this rocky ball of dirt should be left to float about undisturbed."

Rose listened and nodded, but kept glancing at the entrance to the tent behind her; worried that someone would wander in and discover the two of them crouched on the floor.

Then the slab let out a series of angry-sounding beeps and the Doctor cursed.

"Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Their main computer is smarter then I thought it would be. As sneaky as I am, and I am sneaky—" he tried to ignore Rose's skeptical look. "I can be sneaky! Really! But this time, I've not been sneaky enough. The computer is onto us, and if it's onto us... so are the people running it."

"Rose," the Doctor looked up at her. "Run!"

The two of them took off through the tent entrance, pounding for the security barrier. An angry yowl came from behind them, and Rose stepped up her pace.

The Doctor still had the slab with him and was pounding at it furiously as he kept pace beside her. "The shields should be down, Rose. Just keep running!"

But an orange blur tackled them just as they were about to make it past where the shield had been. The Doctor went tumbling into Rose, their legs tangling together and they fell down in a heap. The orange alien slammed into them from above and Rose could feel sharp claws digging into the flesh of her arm. She tried to use her legs to kick it off of her—but it didn't even shift.

It was snarling at her, something fierce and terrible, she could almost feel the vibration rattling down to her bones. Then the growl stopped abruptly, due to the slab impacting the side of its head, as the Doctor stood above them, still holding the device like a weapon at the ready. Rose let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

The Doctor pulled her up from beneath the limp body of the Tecalian, and hustled her back towards the line of dunes and the sea beyond. They clambered up the slopes of the dune and tumbled down the other side. The sand was slowing them down, and Rose risked a glance behind her back; seeing more of the Tecalians following them over the dune, and loping after them with an easy stride.

The Doctor took her hand and tugged to get Rose's attention. "The equipment they need to shatter the Earth will be located in the middle of the test hole. When the ship arrives they'll be deployed—they'll look kind of like rockets. The thing is, every single one needs to function for the process to work. Damage one, and everything fails. Just one, Rose!"

"What do you mean Doctor?" Rose shouted, trying to ignore the developing stitch in her side.

"They're going to outrun us! Just remember to damage just one of the rockets, Rose!"

He released her hand, spun on his heels and launched himself towards the advancing Tecalians. They hadn't been prepared for their quarry to switch tactics so suddenly. The Doctor bowled them over, and Rose stopped in her tracks.

"Run, Rose! Run!" the Doctor shouted at her and she shook herself out of it, her legs obeying even if her brain rebelled at every step.

She kept running, her legs burning, and the stitch in her side feeling like it was on fire. One of the Tecalians had managed to untangle itself from the mess the Doctor had made, and was pursuing her.

There were craggy mounds of rock ahead, jutting out from the sea. Rose didn't look back as she scrambled up them, weaving her way through them at a pace that didn't feel that safe. Rose jumped down and kept going, grateful to be back on the sandy beach.

There was a roar behind her and a shriek of pain. She looked back towards the rocks where a huge sea creature had launched itself up onto them; and was dragging the flailing alien into the waves, holding it clutched between its massive jaws. The Tecalian beat at the creature's snout with clawed fists and yowled one last time, before being dragged beneath the waves.

Rose didn't spend too much time waiting around. The adrenaline surge was enough to get her off the beach, through the ferns lining its edges, and back into the conifer forest. She didn't stop until the sunlight was barely visible through the overhead canopy.

Once there, her mind reeled. The Doctor. She had to go back for the Doctor. But, the rocket—!

Rose slid to the ground, her back against one of the massive conifers. She tried to catch her breath, her mouth raw and dry; she desperately wished for some of the water the Doctor had stashed away in his suit pockets.

Or even better, the Doctor himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose had been forced to retreat back to the forest, trying to figure out what her next step was. The only idea she kept coming back to was go back to the TARDIS, eat something, get some water, and see if she could figure out what the Doctor was getting at with his last instructions.

Now, it would help if she could remember _where_ they left the TARDIS. She was usually very careful to note where it set down but with the running around and the fact that everything looked the same…

She'd figure it out. No worries there. Not at all.

Rose came upon a stream gurgling through a clearing in the trees. She dipped her hands in the cool water, and splashed her face. She had her misgivings about the cleanliness of the water, but she ended up drinking her fill, trusting that her TARDIS-enhanced immune system would be enough should any prehistoric parasites call this stream home.

Rose sat back on her haunches and dug through her pockets, taking stock of what she had since she'd been separated from the Doctor. She didn't expect much – probably some misshapen chocolates and her mobile so the sonic tumbling out came as a complete surprise.

The Doctor was supposed to have the sonic screwdriver. She'd counted on him having it when she hadn't been able to rescue him herself.

"That pompous git," Rose murmured to herself as she wrapped her arms around her knees and stared blankly at the sonic.

An ominous rumble from the direction of some nearby trees shook her out of her worry-induced haze. Rose scooped up the sonic and retreated away from the rather large noises the bush was making and darted farther into the forest. He was the Doctor, she told herself, and she had faith in him.

Didn't mean she wasn't going to whack him one when she saw him next. The stupid self-sacrificing git.

Twilight was setting in and the sonic was a comforting excuse for a torch in her hands. She'd need to find a place to sleep for the night, away from any predators preferably. High up in a tree maybe? It was a distinct possibility provided she didn't put herself at a snack height. She trusted the Doctor's gadget, but wasn't around to put it to the test.

The ground rumbled beneath Rose's feet. Startled shrieks, bellows and howls echoed through the forest and her heart stuttered in her chest. An explosion ripped through the air and she was lifted from her feet and thrown back – landing with a thud against the trunk of a tree and slamming face first into a small pond.

She clawed her way to the surface and gasped, her eyes widening in horror as a wave of fire engulfed the trees and vegetation. She dove, screwing her eyes shut, holding her breath and praying it would be over soon. Whatever it was.

* * *

The ship was vast, the Doctor had to give it that much.

It made him think of the TARDIS, his old TARDIS, back in the other universe with her endless corridors and numberless rooms. Different life now, onwards and upwards and all that. Plus the TARDIS was a lovely old girl, and for all this ship's vastness it didn't hold a candle to her.

The Bridge was buried deep in the heart of the ship and the Doctor was manhandled to a standstill before an irate looking Tecalian, cuffs still as tight as when they had first been put on, gag still in place and guards still as attentive as the moment they'd laid eyes on him. These guards were highly disappointing.

The gag was removed and the Doctor coughed, licking his parched lips and hoping that someday soon his mouth wouldn't feel like a desert had moved in and made itself at home.

"What were you doing in the camp?". The Tecalian demanded.

"No hello how are you? 'Bit disappointing you are, and Rose says I can be a rude one!" The Tecalian's fur ruffled at the Doctor, and he had the distinct impression that he'd pulled the same move before. Except with hair instead of fur. Was it as off-putting when he did it as when the Tecalian did it? He hoped not.

"Well then, I'll kickoff the pleasantries. Hello! I'm the Doctor, and you are?"

"I do not care who you are," the Tecalian growled in response.

"I am feeling better and better about how rude I am! You are literally the king of rude, the sultan of it, possibly the emperor. People could take lessons from you!"

"Answer my question or I will throw you out of the airlock."

"Fine," the Doctor replied. "No need to be tetchy. I was in your camp because you are attempting to use a living planet as a mine. There are laws against that, and you were breaking them. I felt it my civic duty to step in and see that it doesn't happen."

"You seem to know more than you should, although I don't think you know enough,

"Aw now, that's a low blow!"

One of the techs handed the Commander a slab. The Tecalian glared down at its surface, claws clacking against it as information scrolled by. "You knew that we intended to drill. You did not know when you tried to hack our computer that we were so close to being done with the test holes. In fact, the test you interrupted was to be our last – and _will_ be the last." His mouth curved into the facsimile of a smile; toothy and pointed. "We must follow the correct procedures and ten sites are vital to the success of our venture."

The Tecalian swung away from the bound Doctor and moved through the bridge, barking orders and glancing from time to time to the screen that dominated the room.

It was a view of the Earth . The map zoomed in, and the Doctor realized that the area he was viewing was the valley he and Rose had walked through earlier that morning. The valley was shrouded in darkness; night having fallen but the screen artificially lightened it to the point that the details were immediately obvious.

"You can't," he said. "This planet may not be host to intelligent life as you know it, but it will be in the future; you can't wipe all that out just for some rocks! Captain, please!"

A guard smacked him. "You will address Commander F'trant with respect!"

"Commander," the Doctor amended, sarcastically. "This goes against the rules of your people!" Commander F'trant did not spare him a glance. "That is a living planet! You have no right to do this!"

The Doctor watched in horror as a countdown on the right of the screen clicked down and a mushroom cloud bloomed out from where the valley used to be as streams of plasma bore into the earth, annihilating anything living that used to reside there. He could feel the anger coursing through him at the sight and was lunging at F'trant mindlessly, the guard pulling him back before he got very far.

Rose was nowhere near there, she couldn't be. He was certain of it, though fear ran through him nonetheless.

The bridge was alive with chatter he barely registered. He stared dumbly at the screen as the skin of the earth peeled back where the valley had been and the hole bore deeper. The guard's claws were digging into his upper arms, holding him still when all he wanted to do was find Rose, make sure of her safety.

The Commander meandered back towards the Doctor, blasé in the face of the destruction he had caused. "There is nothing you can do, Doctor. You are in my custody, and I've been informed that the companion you had with you had been chased into the blast zone. In fact, I'd be surprised if anything not in the camp has survived. Count yourself lucky that my people thought it best to bring you to my attention."

The Commander's eyes flickered over to the guards "Bring it to the holding area. If its species can be determined we may have some use for this 'Doctor' yet."

The guards pulled the Doctor away from the view on the screen and he looked back at the Commander as they dragged him from the bridge. "I will stop you," the Doctor said coldly, and knew without fail that he would. The Commander huffed and flared his flap of a nose at the Doctor. It was a clear dismissal, and the Doctor knew F'trant would only make that mistake once.

* * *

Rose dug her fingers into the mud and pulled, dragging herself out of the pond and onto the bank. She closed her eyes and coughed, hacking up brackish water and feeling like her lungs were about to give out.

The forest was still burning – smoldering mostly, the brunt of the inferno having knocked down most of the trees like matchsticks. One of the few trees still standing near her crackled ominously as it burned and she scrambled to her feet as a burning branch landed near her.

Rose stumbled along, ashes sticking to her skin, and clothes. The air hung heavy with them and she choked back a sob as she re-entered the clearing that was once so full of life. The burnt carcass of a Stegosaurus was damming the stream.

It smelled like the roasts her mum used to make. Rose tried not to gag.

There had to be somewhere safe to pass the rest of the night. Her adrenaline high was fading, she was still coughing and her legs were aching. She wanted nothing more then to curl up in bed with her husband, and drift off to sleep with her arms wrapped around him.

The sonic had come through the ordeal brilliantly and the weight of it was comforting as she moved through the night. The forest was littered with bodies big and small and it was astounding to think that so much animal life had been all around her the few times she'd made her way through the trees.

Rose counted herself lucky when she found a small cliff face tucked in what had once been the coniferous forest. She ran her fingers across the surface of the rocks as she walked along it, looking for a suitable place to settle herself.

A small overhang looked promising and Rose shoved against the rocks, making sure there would be no nasty surprises while she slept before climbing in and curling in on herself.

She was wet and hungry and upset. The Jurassic night was warm and Rose was grateful for small mercies, not having the strength to deal with her wet clothes.

Rose dropped off with more ease then she would have thought possible.

"You have dinosaurs in this ship!" the Doctor exclaimed.

The Guard looked at him sideways. "We have been told the large lizards will be worth much to private collectors."

"Oh, I'm sure," the Doctor enthused. "They are quite flashy." He wiggled his fingers at a caged dromaeosaur. The little animal puffed up its colorful feathers and shrieked at him. "This ship just arrived today, to get all these dinosaurs moved up and stowed in such a short amount of time…"

The Guard glared at the Doctor. "We are very organized."

"Oh, I can see that," the Doctor agreed. "So organized that even the destruction of Earth occurs on a timetable, and the only survivors will be scattered to the private collections of the rich and greedy. How much of a cut do _you_ get; if you don't mind me asking?"

The only response was a hard shove into a small, empty cage. The door clanged shut and locked behind him.

"Hey!" he shouted at the retreating guard. "You can't leave me in here! This cage is far too small! I'll ruin my hair—that has got to be a violation of my rights! I'm human now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention covers this!"

The Doctor turned to the much larger cage next to his and regarded its occupant mournfully. "They never listen."

The Allosaurus next door to his cage growled.

"You said it," the Doctor agreed. He peered out between the bars of the cage. The assortment of creatures they'd packed into the hangar was astounding.

From the smallest mammal, to the largest sauropod, they were all represented. They were just animals and on the whole not very intelligent—some smarter then others maybe, but not by much. It was no wonder they were scared, wrenched from the life they knew to one full of confinement and new smells and crammed in with predators they'd normally avoid. The Doctor eyed a family of Dryosaurs that chirped and jumped every time the Allosaurus next to him moved.

He draped his arms across the horizontal bar running around the middle of the cage and looked at the Allosaurus. The Allosaurus looked back.

"I shall call you George," the Doctor said. "You look like a George. A good, solid name for a good solid fellow like yourself. Although I'm thinking the rest of this lot don't think you're so good. Can't help it really though, being a meat eater. We can't help what's in our natures. Fight against them as much as you want and yet they still win."

George blinked at him.

"I tried the domestic life. Tried it a few times actually, and always end up back where I started, traveling through space and time and invariably ending up in prison. I like that word 'invariably'—it's just fun." The Doctor rolled it off his tongue a few more times. "Invariably... It means not changing. You'd think for someone that has done so much changing – faces, bodies, hearts, personalities that I'd have it down already, be old hat by now." He sighed. "Nope, not me. Still the same. The body may be human, but me; no I remain as I ever was. Still getting Rose Tyler into trouble." He looked at George. "Jackie is going to murder me."

The Allosaurus grumbled at him.

"Mmm, I don't think eating her is an option," the Doctor said. "I appreciate the offer though. She'd probably serve _you _up for afternoon hors d'oeuvres. Take my advice, my friend: if you ever see Jackie Tyler? Run. You'll thank me later."

A dinosaur further down the hanger bellowed, and George whipped his head around, nostrils flaring and claws flexing.

The Doctor carried on as if nothing had distracted his new friend. "If I can't fix this, and they do destroy the Earth, I guess that means there's no Jackie Tyler to run away from. So that's a plus, although not necessarily true, since she's not from this universe. There would still be a Jackie Tyler, but would there be a me if there's no alternate Earth? And does that mean we wouldn't have crashed through the void the first time? Or would it have all just played out on some alternate-alternate Earth? Would it still be Rose Tyler and the Doctor in the TARDIS, but plus a heart and minus a metacrisis? Maybe plus a Donna Noble…"

The Doctor flopped on his back and stared at the bars of his cage. "Doesn't really bear thinking about, does it? Blimey, I need to quit wallowing. At least that's what Donna would say, probably get a smack in for good measure too."

An enormous clang sounded through the hanger. The Doctor twisted himself around only to find a Brachiosaurus throwing its weight against the bars of its rather large enclosure. It bellowed, and pushed again, the bars still holding against the bulk of the dinosaur. The Doctor looked at George. "Well, there goes my cunning plan to break the bars with my manly strength."

* * *

Rose Tyler opened her eyes the day after Armageddon and found she still lived.

She was hurting all over, the muscles in her legs screamed at her, and her back was not too happy with having hard ground as a bed.

There was something moving against her stomach, Rose stilled and hoped she'd just been imagining the feeling. It could be anything, the remnants of a nightmare, her tired brain playing tricks on her; or maybe a giant insect. She shuddered and peered down at her stomach, afraid it would be the latter.

A small, feathered dinosaur stared back at her from where it was burrowed against her midsection.

She practically jumped out of her skin, launching herself from the shelter of the overhang. The little dinosaur squawked indignantly and followed, snuffling around her feet as she stood next to the cliff face, shaking.

The dinosaur hopped up and down around her, chattering and ruffling his brown feathers. The blue feather crest that ran along the top of his head was in constant movement – up, down, up down, up down. Rose realized he was acting like a miniature dinosaur version of the Doctor, and she couldn't help but be charmed.

She dug in her pockets for something to offer the little guy. Amazingly enough, the chocolates were still in her coat pocket—although she couldn't say for sure how good they were going to be after being dunked in a pond and then almost scorched in a fire.

She unwrapped the chocolate and tossed it towards the little creature anyway, hoping it didn't have some awful chocolate allergy and that she wasn't poisoning him.

The dinosaur leapt on it, gobbling the chocolate down and crowing for more, its movements becoming even more frenetic. Rose crouched down and tossed the second piece, which was gobbled even quicker. The tiny dinosaur, no longer than her outstretched arm, preened, fluffing its feathers and strutting about.

"Hey, boy," Rose crooned; stretching out her hand to what she thought had to be a baby of some sort. He rubbed his head against her fingers and she trailed her hand along his neck and down along is back, the dinosaur arching into the touch.

"Are you all alone, little guy?" Rose said. The Dinosaur chirped and she scratched more firmly at his back. "I wish I could stay here all day petting you, but my husband got himself caught by the bad guys, and yet again it's up to me to drag him out of it." She gave him one last stroke, running her hand from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. "It's too bad, I think he'd like you."

She was just about to climb to her feet when a sonic boom shattered the still morning air. The little dinosaur shrieked and Rose found herself with an arm full of feathers as it landed on her lap. They cowered together beside the cliff face, burnt-out trees shuddering as the shockwave echoed.

There was a rumbling in the distance, as if something had landed. Something like a rocket, Rose thought, remembering the Doctor's instructions to her. The little dinosaur meeped in her arms, she set him down and gave him one last scratch "Be careful little guy. I'm sure you'll be fine, you've come this far."

The rocket hadn't landed close by, that Rose was sure of. And she wasn't just going to rely on the Doctor, wherever he was, to save the day at the last minute.

She trudged through molten debris – some of it still smoldering, and tried to brush off the ashes still clinging to her clothing. She felt disgusting, and pushed fond thoughts of the nice, clean TARDIS shower from her mind – it would have to wait.

She stumbled going down a hill, crashing to her knees in the burnt vegetation; and almost landed on the tiny, feathered dinosaur that had been following her. It fluttered its feathers at her and Rose smiled.

"So you're comin' with me then?" she rubbed under its neck and it arched, chirping happily. "Feel free to turn back any time. It won't hurt my feelings." It ruffled it's blue crest at her and she laughed "C'mon little boy blue, we've got a long way to go."

The valley was destroyed and as far as Rose could tell, she and Little Boy were the only living things for miles. The enormous ferns had been burned away, and the hulking carcasses of the Apatosaurus herd Rose had been watching the day before lined the valley. The smell was awful, and their bodies were grotesque – twisted into strange contortions; and where the skin was mostly burnt away she could see shredded muscles, bones and internal organs.

Little Boy was jumping and chirping happily, treating the dead bodies as if they were his own personal playground. He tore into the charred flesh littering the ground, and Rose gagged as he wolfed it down. "Well there goes any desire for breakfast," she said to herself, resolutely turning away.

There was a crater in the valley floor, where the lake used to be. Rose and Little Boy peered down the edge at what looked like a rocket crossed with a tarantula, straddling a rather large hole. Little Boy looked up at her, ruffled his feathers and squawked as she started skidding down the sides of the crater.

She didn't think he'd follow, but he proved her wrong, skidding down after her and squawking angrily the entire way.

It wasn't the largest rocket Rose had ever seen, but it seemed big and ominous enough to cause problems. The real source of her concern were the spindly legs holding the thing upright over a massive drill hole. It was like a bastardized moon lander, and Rose had the sinking sensation that if she had to damage this thing to the point that it wasn't operational, she was going to have to crawl up one of those spindly legs.

Little Boy was sniffing at the drill hole as if it were the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

"No time like the present," Rose muttered, stepping onto the landing pad of one of the six struts, and started climbing. It wasn't terribly difficult, but one slip and she would be tumbling headfirst down a bloody massive hole. Little Boy was crying piteously on the ground behind her, and darting around manically. He was clearly upset she'd seen fit to up and leave him, even though he could still see her.

She clung to the body of the craft when she reached it, happy to not have fallen. The alien screws were no match against the sonic, and Rose laughed to herself. She was finally using the sonic screwdriver as a screwdriver! Who would have thought?

She tossed the released panel down the hole, and peered into the guts of the machine. Rose was not a tech, and had never been too proficient as a computer whiz, relying on her team or the Doctor to make up where she lacked. But she was absolutely fantastic at improvisation, and was thankful she'd had the Doctor run her through the settings on the sonic once he'd built it.

She thumbed through the settings, turned it on, and let it rip.

* * *

Hairpins were handy little things to have on one's person when locked up and the Doctor should know; he seemed to have made getting thrown in prison a hobby.

He was glad he'd swiped some of Rose's hairpins. Oh he'd denied it left and right when she asked the last time, but it had been him and not Tony as he'd claimed.

George, curious thing that he was, seemed to be finding whatever the Doctor was doing endlessly fascinating. Or at least the Doctor hoped George found lockpicking fabulously entertaining, as the alternative was to be that George found him fascinating as the source of a future snack.

This version of himself would make for a horrible snack, the Doctor was certain, far too boney and lean. Now his Sixth or Seventh selves? They would have been delectable morsels.

The lock mechanism sputtered and sparked under his hands. The Doctor pulled his burnt fingers back and stuck them in his mouth, mournfully inspecting his melted bobby pin. He had more, but he was sure that this one was his lucky pin.

"I was certain I'd get it that time" he added the destroyed pin to his collection of burnt, broken and smoldering pins. "Houdini taught me this trick, I'll have you know. No one ever believes me when I tell them that. I'm sure you do though, right George?"

The Allosaurus did not answer, but the Doctor continued on. "Nine hundred years of time and space, and granted I may be a human now with a Time Lord brain, but the Time Lords were more interested in an intact mind and brain then they were the body. Well, mostly. The Master had a bad habit of bringing himself back using next to nothing —he once possessed a corpse. Can you imagine that? Possessing a corpse?" The Doctor shuddered. "Anyhow, 900 years, and everyone thinks I'm having a great lark at their expense when I talk about my travels. I mean, _of course_ Houdini taught me a few things, I'm only going to go to the best. Granted, Houdini was working with locks that were a little less electronic, so I think I can be forgiven."

The Doctor pulled another bobby pin out, adjusted his specs, and began the whole process all over again.

"The cages were designed with both primitive and advanced tools in mind," a voice interjected. The Doctor cursed and dropped the blindingly hot pin. Even George had snapped to attention, his scaly lips curling back from his teeth in a snarl.

One of the Tecalians was peering down at his pile of discarded hairpins through gigantic, rubber goggles that forced his fur and ears out at strange angles. The Doctor tried bouncing to his feet, forgetting that the cage was far too small, and only succeeded in banging his skull against the top bars. He rubbed his head and squinted up at the newcomer.

"I am First Engineer Glick," the Tecalian said.

"Nice to meet you! I'm the Doctor, and this is George," The Doctor said as he gestured to the occupant of the cage next to his. Glick looked dubious.

"You do not approve of what our Commander is doing?" Glick asked hesitantly.

"Of course not. Earth has life on it, and someday intelligent life that's going to form a civilization of its own, and spread across the stars."

"You see the future?"

"Not so much 'see' as experienced it."

"I do not understand."

"Well, time isn't exactly linear now is it? But that's not the point. You, First Engineer Glick, came down here for a reason; and I'm thinking it's not because iyou/i approve of what your commander is doing."

"No," Glick wailed, wringing his clawed hands in front of himself. "It's going against law and reason, and is an affront to the Goddess!"

"Does the Commander know you think this way?" The Doctor asked.

"No, to question him is to be punished!"

"Charming character, this Commander of yours." The Doctor hooked his arms over the bars and pulled himself up so he was crouching as close to Glick as he could get. "So tell me, First Engineer Glick, what are you going to do about it?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you! You're here, aren't you? I may be a captive audience, but I'm hoping you'll see me as more than just a shoulder to cry on." The Doctor smiled crookedly, hoping that what Rose called his "puppy dog eyes" worked on feline aliens.

"I-I don't know. It never should have gone this far, and there's more than just me who thinks the Commander is crossing a line. The authorities… they should have known! Why didn't they know?"

"Don't you think it's long past time that they did?" The Doctor replied.

"But the Commander—"

"Will be dealt with. Now let me out, and we'll see about getting all of this sorted without you and your mates having to deal with the Commander's idea of punishment."

Glick looked unimpressed. The Doctor did his best to go from puppy dog begging, to Oncoming Storm Impressive, but feared his crouched and captive status may be ruining the desired effect.

The Tecalian sighed, pulling a device off his utility belt, and swiped it against the lock mechanism the Doctor had spent so much time trying to mangle. The mechanism buzzed, sparked feebly, and unlocked; the cage door swinging open. And for the first time in what felt like forever, the Doctor could finally crack his neck.

"Now First Engineer Glick, where's the communication equipment; and when does F'trant intend to get down to the nitty-gritty?"

"If you mean the drilling, a few hours time possibly? The communication equipment is four levels up. I don't know how I'll get you there. You look nothing like us."

"Details, details." The Doctor bounced over to George's cage and peered in at the crouched dinosaur. George peered back. "Now George, don't go wandering off while I'm gone. I'll get you out of this, but I need you to stay here. Shouldn't be too much of a problem; what with the bars and the locks, but you seem a resourceful kind of fellow, and it's always the resourceful ones that end up being the biggest problems." He reached up through the cage and gave George a pat on the nose. The Allosaurus reared back in surprise, standing still for a moment before letting out an enormous sneeze.

Glick looked at him like he was nuts.

"Allons-y!" the Doctor cried, following Glick through the rows of cages.

Glick had been right about the Doctor standing out amongst this crowd. The hallways of the ship, while vast, were far from empty. Glick ended up leaving him in a storage closet as he scouted out a way for the Doctor to move about incognito. It really was beginning to feel like old times. The only thing missing was Rose Tyler, and the Doctor refused to believe that she was anywhere but safe and probably causing trouble. Well, as safe as one could be whilst causing trouble, which wasn't that safe, but this was Rose Tyler; she who crossed realities and caused Daleks to tremble. She'd be fine.

Glick reappeared, pushing along a sheet-covered gurney with an elaborate engine resting on it. The Tecalian pulled the sheet back and gestured for the Doctor to climb on the bottom shelf just above the gravity repulsers.

It was one of the oldest tricks out there, and it just might work. He climbed in, scrunched himself up and bid hello to the returning crick in his neck.

No one gave an engineer carting an engine around a second glance. No curiosity this lot – the Doctor would have been dying to know about all the mechanical bits and bobs Glick had on this thing. He peeked out through the sheets at Glick's clawed feet and assumed it was probably for the best no one on this ship except him suffered from idle curiosity.

Four levels up hadn't sounded that far in the hangar, but it was a hell of a slog. They really did need to design a more efficient means of transportation for a ship of this size. How was one supposed to be quick and stealthy, when they had to go such a distance? He really should look up the designers, the Doctor thought.

Doors hissed open and hissed closed and the cart came to a final stop. "Specialist T'lant," Glick said. "I need to ask a favor of you."

The Doctor peeked out from beneath the sheets but still couldn't see anything besides Glick's feet. He really needed a pedicure, those claws weren't looking like they were in the best of shape.

"Anything," T'lant replied. "You know I owe you."

Glick sighed and twitched the sheets aside, revealing the scrunched-up Doctor. "I require your silence."

The Doctor crawled out of the gurney, attempted to roll to his feet and only ended up rolling onto his back with an "Oomph!"

"What is it?" T'lant asked Glick.

"I do not know. It was scheduled for an examination after LP-587 is destroyed, but it claims it can stop the Commander from going through with this insanity."

The Doctor bounced to his feet. "You call Earth LP-587? How boring is that? I mean, what's the fun of traveling through space if you can't give ridiculous names to things?"

"Like, _George_?" Glick asked.

"George is a perfectly respectable name," the Doctor replied disdainfully.

He turned his attention to T'lant. "Hello, I'm the Doctor; and I need to use your equipment."

T'lant stuttered a bit, clearly not expecting the creature Glick had rolled in to begin talking to her. The Doctor brushed her aside and started fiddling with the communication controls, pulling up various folders full of interesting things: internal memos, flight plans, and survey data. All the Doctor needed to bring this little enterprise to a grinding halt.

"From what I've seen of this universe, the changes between it and mine are mainly confined to Earth. The planets I've been to, the places I've traveled, aren't terribly different. Oh so many years ago, I used to know people. I know i_lots_/iof people—but this bunch? Oh, they were great big muckety-mucks for quite a sprawling empire. Your empire in fact; well, not quite yours since you're here and they're there, and the void and all that blah blah blah... Anyway, I helped them out a few times with a few problems, and managed to come away with some rather impressive personal communication codes that will raise so many red flags no one in their right mind will be able to ignore it."

The Doctor typed furiously. "Add in some tidbits to the media and I think our dear Commander won't be the Commander too much longer." The Doctor spun around in the chair and looked up at the two Tecalians. "I am _brilliant_!" he exclaimed.

"What about us?" Glick asked, panic barely contained in his voice. "He'll take us down with him."

"No worries. I've got that covered too. Memos can be dangerous little things if your not careful and F'trant was not careful enough for me."

The computer behind the Doctor made a shrill warning sound, and a new screen pulled up. He twisted around and tensed. The Earth was on the screen – the continents were still barely unrecognizable as what they would become, but he'd know that planet anywhere, and his one single heart leapt into his throat.

T'lant shoved past him and started clicking away at the computer. "Detonation in ten seconds."

"Can't we do something from here?" the Doctor demanded. "Shut down the drills, the power, anything?"

T'lant gave him a sympathetic look "This computer is not connected to the ones controlling those functions. You'd have to interface with them directly from the bridge, or from their ports to do anything. Even then, their firewalls are formidable."

The Doctor cursed, batting her hands away and trying regardless of her words. He wanted to cover his eyes, deny this was happening, but he couldn't look away from the brilliant blue and green planet that was about to become rubble. The planet Rose was on.

Glick's clawed hand rested on his shoulder as the countdown clicked down to zero.

Nothing happened.

The Doctor threw his head back and laughed, "Rose Tyler, I love you!" he said.


	3. Chapter 3

The interior of the rocket was a mess; wires were ripped to shreds, and liquid was leaking down the aft section of the machine, dripping into the drill hole below. Rose was careful not to touch it as she sat back, swayed precariously for a moment before surveying the destruction she'd caused to the device. It didn't look like it would be working anytime soon.

Rose carefully maneuvered herself farther back on the support strut, wiggling her way down and keeping her attention focused on what her feet and hands were doing, and not on what was beneath her.

Solid ground was a relief, and as proud as she was of the gymnastics medal she'd won years and another universe ago, she had to admit she woefully out of practice with this aspect of her life.

Little Boy greeted her, bouncing around her legs, begging to be scratched. She'd love nothing more then to cuddle up to him and indulge this; but it was not the time or place. She wouldn't be surprised if the nearby mining camp, if they were still there, hadn't been alerted to her sabotage and had sent someone to look at the damage.

She was halfway up the slope of the crater when the rocket lit up and started clicking. Rose could hear machinery turning on and climbed faster, hoping her sabotage had been enough to prevent the machine from blowing the Earth up.

Little Boy reached the top first and chirped down at her as she scrambled. Even his encouragement wasn't enough: she was still climbing when the rocket blew.

For the second time in a twenty-four hour period, Rose Tyler found herself caught in an explosion.

The explosion flattened her to the ground, and she could vaguely hear Little Boy squealing as debris rained down on them. Then she heard nothing.

Rose came to with a bright light in her eyes and a small brown furry dinosaur burrowing against her and whining piteously. She lay back and looked at the clouds. Bright, fluffy clouds floating above an Earth that still existed.

Rose craned her neck so she could see the drill hole and what remained of the rocket. It was shredded, one strut was bravely clinging on, but the majority of the machine was scattered about the crater. What larger pieces remained were listing dangerously over the drill hole.

Rolling over onto her back, Rose pulled Little Boy to her chest and cradled him. He squirmed against her, his tiny head nudging her chin as he relaxed under her fingers.

Her solitude did not last long, as suddenly stones were spilling down the rim and skittering past her as something worked its way down the side of the crater. A large part of her was hoping it was the Doctor.

It wasn't. Little Boy meeped and crammed his small body underneath her jacket, pressing himself against her ribs and shaking. Four orange felines with flaps for noses peered down at her.

Rose smiled crookedly and waggled her fingers at them.

They pulled Rose to her feet, their grip tight and not budging; fortunately she managed to cradle Little Boy against her as they hauled her up the side of crater and onto the swath of destruction ringing it.

The Tecalians arrayed themselves about her as a transmat activated and the broken bodies and destruction of the valley faded from view. The one next to Rose was practically holding her up as they escorted her from the small room they'd materialized in.

"Oi, watch it!" Rose shouted as she tried to detach herself from the claws that were digging into her shoulders "I've got legs, I know how to use them!"

The Tecalian growled at her, literally pulled teeth back and growled "The prisoner will be silent."

"Hardly," she said. "It wouldn't hurt you to at least itry/i and be polite. It goes further. Plus, I've not even been told what I'm being held for!"

"You have destroyed our property!" the Tecalian replied.

"Really? That was yours? I had _no_ idea. It was nothing personal, I just don't approve of trying to blow up planets, especially _my_ planet!"

"That planet cannot possibly be yours. We've studied it, the dominant species consists of lizards."

"You think I don't know my own planet?" Rose asked incredulously. "It may not be mine now, but give it a couple hundred million years and it will be."

He pulled her down a hallway roughly and Little Boy tightened his talons in the cloth of her shirt and whimpered. "So you're either from the future, or just an outsider with an active imagination trying to get at the mineral rights?"

Rose snorted and the guard came to a halt, looking down at her. "This is my planet. I was born here—or I will be born here. My family will live here, and that won't happen unless you leave it alone," she said.

"If only that were up to me," her captor said mournfully.

"Then bring me to the person in charge!"

"The Commander will not listen. He has already been informed of your sabotage, and he wants you locked away until the drill head you destroyed can be replaced and the drilling resumed."

"No, you can't!" Rose yelled.

"Trisk!" a voice shouted from further up the hallway. "The saboteur is to be locked up, why are you standing in the hallway chatting with it?" One of the Tecalians that had accompanied Rose from Earth stalked back to his cohort and pushed Rose roughly. She stumbled and crashed to her knees, gasping in pain.

Little Boy went tumbling from beneath her jacket and landed in front of her. He fluffed up his feathers, raised his blue crest to its full height and shrieked. Rose scrambled to her feet and ran down the hall, ignoring the startled Tecalians she passed, and darted into the nearest door she could. Thankfully, Little Boy had caught up and skidded in with her.

Back to the door, Little Boy already running among the cages, Rose couldn't help but gape at the dinosaurs packed into the massive room.

As a little girl, Rose had gone on a field trip to the Natural History Museum, and she'd stood amongst the dinosaur bones, wondering what it would be like if they were all to come alive right then and there.

She didn't have to wonder anymore.

Her entrance had caused a stir amongst the giant animals, and almost all of them were moving or making some kind of noise. The door behind her jiggled as her pursuers tried to beat their way through.

Rose took off through the cages, working her way to the other side of the room, hoping that she could find another exit. She shrieked as a horned carnivore with a wide mouth launched itself at the bars of its cage; snapping and growling, and not bending the bars one bit.

She kept running, the door behind her swinging open with a crash as her pursuers finally managed to get it open.

A Brachiosaurus to her right bellowed and Rose ran, trainers pounding against the metal floor, and her heart pounding in her chest. She didn't get as far as she wanted, one of the Tecalians impacted with her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. He was on her in an instant, clawed hands wrapping around her neck as she struggled against him.

The second Tecalian appeared, ripping the strangler up and off of her. He was shaking him roughly, yowling at his cohort in anger.

Rose didn't waste her time to catch her breath. She was scrambling to her knees, and pulling herself up using the bars of a nearby cage. The dinosaurs inside it, slender bipedal ostrich-looking things, squawked nervously and tried to cram themselves even further into the back of the cage.

One of the Tecalians reached for her again, but she was ready this time, striking out with her foot and hitting it squarely in the knee. It hissed and redoubled its attack, throwing itself at her as she ran. It impacted against her a second time, throwing both of them into the front of another cage.

The lock on the cage disengaged with a click, and both Rose and the Tecalian froze, she glanced down at the utility pouch dangling from its waist – a utility pouch that was crushed against the lock by the weight of its body.

She kicked the stunned alien away from her and ran off, looking over her shoulder. A roar reverberated through the hanger as a giant carnivore pushed its way out of the confines of its cage. It was the same type of dinosaur that had attacked the Apatosaurus herd back in the valley when they had first arrived – ian Allosaurus/i, the Doctor's voice whispered in her head.

The Tecalians had reacted far too slow. The Allosaurus was on them before Rose could call out a warning, snatching up the Tecalian that had been so quick to attack, and shaking it brutally – drops of orange blood spattering the deck below. The second Tecalian took the hint and ran.

She tried to block out the sound of the Allosaurus feeding, but it was hard to ignore as she ran for the far wall. The dinosaurs still locked up had practically whipped themselves into a state of blind panic – shrieking, cowering or flinging themselves at the bars of their cages. Rose didn't care, so long as the Allosaurus stayed where it was and didn't come looking for her.

There were doors at the far end of the room – massive double doors that looked to be locked tight. Rose dug in her pocket and pulled the sonic out, zapping the locking mechanism and breathing a sigh of relief as the doors rolled back: to reveal a startled Tecalian on the other side.

They stared in surprise at each other for a moment before the orange alien shrieked, and fumbled at a communications device hanging from its utility belt. Rose darted forward, snatching it from the Tecalian, and ran off into the hallways of the massive ship.

She had no idea where she was going, no idea what she was doing and no idea where the Doctor was. She'd just have to make it up as she went along.

In the end, there had been ducts. The entire adventure was beginning to feel like one tight space after another. And to think it had started out with wide-open spaces and the promise of cows. The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair as he followed Glick through the maintenance ducts, crawling on his hands and knees and wishing Rose were with him. The view would be infinitely better if she were the one crawling in front of him instead of Glick. Not that Glick wasn't a fabulous fellow, just that he preferred Rose's arse to that of an orange cat person.

Glick fiddled with the handle on an access panel, and looked back at the Doctor. "The ducts don't lead to the bridge for security reasons. This is the nearest access panel to the bridge." Glick blinked, his goggles making his eyes look huge and owlish. "You'll have to hurry. They'll notice you when you get to the bridge, but I can lock it down and prevent anyone from getting in while you're there.

"Right-o," the Doctor said, jamming up against Glick in the duct and desperately wishing for Rose.

"Doctor, what else can you possibly do? Isn't contacting the empire enough?" Glick asked. The Doctor held the panel steady as Glick removed more of the tabs holding it in place.

"If I know the empire like I think I do, they won't dilly-dally in getting here. But I'm not going to take risks, someone needs to step up and stop him. Plus, I've got you and your lady friend to whip up the masses." The Doctor waggled his eyebrows at Glick.

Glick flapped his nose and ducked his head. "Whenever you're ready, Doctor."

"I'm always ready!" The Doctor grinned. He tumbled out of the duct, managing, (in his opinion,) to be smoother about it this time. Glick had been right about the distance from the access panel to the bridge, the Doctor covered it before anyone showed up in the hallway to see him dart through the doors.

His grand entrance went unnoticed by Commander F'trant and the bridge crew. Well, one small, female tech noticed him from the corner where she was hastily typing commands into her slab. He nodded hello to T'lant and surveyed the action.

F'trant was glued to the screen, issuing all kinds of orders involving launches and landing zones and debris.

"This is all very interesting and ominous. I mean Really? You're trying _again_? You couldn't destroy the Earth, so it's noses to the grindstone, and this time you think it'll just go smashingly?" the Doctor said, bringing the action on the bridge to a grinding halt.

F'trant growled, "We caught your little friend, Doctor. I sincerely doubt there's much you can do to hinder our progress this time."

"Oh I don't know, I did send a rather pointed message full of all sorts of facts to your employers, the military; and just for fun, I dropped some messages off for the news media. I do believe a right firestorm is brewing over all this back at home. I don't imagine it'll be much fun for you, and if I know the Tecalian Empire, (and I'm pretty sure I do,) they'll have dispatched the nearest ship to get here as soon as possible."

The Doctor casually flipped a switch on a console, all the while the nervous tech was busy looking at their Commander, and the Doctor danced his fingers over the console in a casual manner.

"You lie," F'trant rumbled, his ears pined to the back of his head.

"Oh I don't know… could be. I do have a record of it, but this time. Nope… not so much. Right T'lant?"

All eyes on her, T'lant looked as if she wanted to disappear but with a nod of encouragement from the Doctor, she straightened her shoulders, flapped her nose and stared back at her Commander. "What he says is the truth. I saw him send the messages. They should be recorded in the log."

"You are part of my crew and you willingly helped this thing!" F'trant howled.

T'lant, to her credit, did not back down. "You have overstepped your bounds, Commander, and I refuse to be held accountable for your mistakes."

"Sounds like you've got a bit of a rebellion on your hands," the Doctor murmured. "Or would it be a mutiny, this being a ship and all. Oh please tell me the name of this ship is the Bounty!" He bounced on his toes and looked at the crew. They did not look impressed.

A mauve warning light on a nearby console began flashing; the nervous tech closest to it dragged his eyes away from the drama unfolding, and tapped at his console. The Doctor was behind him in a flash, glasses sliding on his nose as he sidestepped around the furious F'trant.

"And it looks like the cavalry has arrived!" he crowed. "Or will be arriving. Give them a few minutes and you'll be all nice and cozy with a Class B Gunship! Good ships those. Exceedingly well built, a bit heavy on the armaments but I've always thought they'd be a bit pretty if it weren't for all the guns and things they have hanging off them."

F'trant leapt at him howling, snarling, claws outstretched. The Doctor dodged, but gasped as one of F'trants claws managed to slash through the material of his suit jacket, and left a fiery trail up his ribs.

"Hail the ship! Surrender now," the Doctor shouted at a stunned T'lant and the rest of the crew as the Battleship arrived.

F'trant didn't give her a chance, pulling a weapon from his utility belt and shooting the communications console. "There will be no surrender! I don't care if I never go back, I will not submit myself to their idea of justice."

"You tried to destroy a planet with life on it, Commander! Either submit yourself to their justice, or you'll experience mine!"

"And who are you, that you get to decide?"

"I'm the Doctor, and there is no higher authority."

"That means nothing to me," F'trant snarled.

"It may not—not in this universe, but it means something somewhere; and that still matters. Stop what you're doing now F'trant."

"Arm weapons!" F'trant shrieked at a frightened crewmember. "Arm everything we've got! You!" he pointed at another tech, who was trying to disappear into his chair. "Launch that mining rocket, the planet exploding should give us enough of a distraction to engage the warp-shunt drive and get away."

The techs poked at their consoles, F'trant's anger proving more of a motivator then the Doctor's barely restrained fury.

"Weapons online," the first tech informed the Commander.

"Mining Rocket is offline. Will not respond."

"What!" F'trant screamed at his startled tech. "That rocket just checked out as operational."

"Oh sorry, that was me." the Doctor said, analyzing his hands and frowning at the cut between his thumb and pointer finger. How in the world had he gotten that? He looked up and said "A little birdie told me that the systems on this ship weren't slaved together so the only way to send commands or interact with a certain system was either from the bridge, or the equipment itself. I fiddled a bit while you were working yourself into a fine froth, reversed the polarity and all that, well, lets just say that rocket is going to be offline for a good long while!"

The Doctor smiled. "Also, I don't think you should fire on the ship that's currently trying to hail us as it is just a teensy weensy bit more armed then you are. You know, just a bit more armed or a lot…"

"Fire at that ship!" F'trant ordered, claws fully extended and spittle flying from his mouth.

The tech looked at his commander with fear writ large across his orange, furry face; and ventured a tentative opinion. "Sir, the creature has a point!"

F'trant raked his claws across the tech's face, and followed it up by pushing him, bleeding and howling from his chair, manning the weapons console himself.

"F'trant don't!" the Doctor shouted, but it was too late. Missiles streaked out and the Doctor could only watch as they impacted against the battleship shields. "Are you mad? That ship is better armed! We are flinging darts at someone with heavy artillery, you are going to destroy everyone on this ship!"

The Battleship retaliated, as the Doctor knew it would. Explosions rocked through the ship and the Doctor was flung from his feet, the floor rushing up to meet his face as he landed hard.

He could vaguely hear T'lant's voice through the ringing in his ears as she called out a damage report. F'trant wasn't listening and hadn't budged from his spot – he was, insanely enough, firing back.

The Doctor picked himself up and lurched against T'lant's console. "Call for a general evacuation. Get these people out of here!" T'lant looked terrified. "Call the evacuation and get out of here. They won't hurt the escape capsules, I promise you. They'll only fire at whomever is firing at them. You will be fine."

* * *

Rose had been doing her best to stay inconspicuous. Dodging and weaving as best she could, and sticking to dark corners and small hidden spaces whenever anyone passed by.

She'd decided to head for the bridge. She was sure the Doctor was somewhere on this ship, and she had no doubt he was causing as much trouble as he could.

She'd been jammed into a corner when the ship had shuddered and jolted, distant explosions causing the deck to buck and twist beneath her feet.

The evacuation command came soon after. Rose gave up all attempts at stealth, rushing through the hallways and ignoring the Tecalians as she tried to navigate her way to the bridge.

A small Tecalian fell against her when the ship jolted again, a panel ahead exploded in a shower of sparks, and they clutched each other as the ship twisted around them.

The ship stilled and Rose unwound her hand from the clump of fur she'd been clutching. The Tecalian was shaking with fear next to her, barely registering her presence. "Which way to the bridge?" she asked.

He didn't respond. Rose snapped her fingers in front of his face, and then tried shaking him. It got through, his eyes lost the glassy look and he jumped when he finally realized she was there. "Which way to the bridge?" Rose demanded again.

"Take this corridor, and at the next intersection turn left. Follow that till it ends. That will be the bridge."

"Thanks." She smiled at him. "You'd better get off the ship now."

He nodded and ducked, his ears flicking back and forth nervously. She turned and ran. She'd get off the ship eventually, but not without the Doctor.

The intersection was a mess, the ceiling was beginning to cave in, pipes and tubes and other burning bits of ship strewn all over the place. She picked her way through them, and had just reached the end of the corridor when the door to the bridge rolled aside.

The Doctor was standing on the other side. They looked at each other for a moment before moving at the same time into a fierce hug. The Doctor's arms tightened around her and for a one blissful moment she allowed herself to relax.

It didn't last. He pulled back and ran a hand gently over her face, fingers swiping at the dried blood beneath her nose.

"Rose…"

"It's nothing, better be getting out of here yeah?"

He nodded and glanced at the Tecalian waiting behind him, "Can you make it to the escape capsules?"

The Tecalian nodded. "They are not far, and this ship has more then enough."

The Doctor smiled at her. "Give my regards to Glick." He released Rose and swept the startled feline into a hug. "You are going to be fantastic!"

The ship shuddered again, a distant explosion ripping through the bulkheads and making the entire ship groan. "Time to go," the Doctor announced, grabbing Rose's hand.

"We're not going with your friend?" Rose asked.

"Nope, we have other plans," the Doctor announced grandly.

"These plans don't include escaping?"

"Not without George and friends."

"George?"

"Yup, I promised I'd get him out of here and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

They raced down the large hallways, the Doctor twisting and turning as he navigated through the crumbling ship. He paused for a moment at an intersection, tongue against teeth as he deliberated. Rose had no idea where they were going.

It wasn't a long pause, but it was long enough. She flew into the bulkhead as a heavy mass impacted with the Doctor.

Rose picked herself up, and threw herself at the Tecalian pinning the Doctor to the ground. The Doctor was trying to throw him off, but he'd dug one of his claws into the Doctor's back and had another wrapped around the Doctor's throat.

She pulled roughly at the Tecalian's fur, trying her hardest to get the thing off her husband. He didn't budge, and instead retaliated by kicking out with a hind limb and tossing her aside.

She so didn't think so. Rose scrabbled at the debris lining the corridor floor, and drew out a section of pipe about the length of her arm. She didn't give any warnings, cracking it against the side of the Tecalian's head.

The thing yowled and released his grip on the Doctor. Rose struck again, bringing the pipe back down on his head. The ship lurched, and Rose somehow kept her balance as the still yowling Tecalian went down hard. The Doctor was picking himself up, the back of his coat shredded, and blood visible around the tears. She could feel the anger boiling in her at the sight, and she whacked the Tecalian in the gut as he tried to roll to his feet.

Ominous rumbles sounded down the corridor, distracting her from the orange alien. The Tecalian's hand whipped out and grabbed her ankle, pulling her off her feet and she landed with an "Oomph!"

The Doctor was shouting and grabbing at Rose as the Tecalian pulled again, dragging her closer to it.

All action stilled as a deafening roar shook through the hallway.

Rose spared a glance at the source, and gasped as a huge Allosaurus strode their way; head just brushing the ceiling of the large hallway.

The Doctor caught her hand and pulled as the dinosaur lunged towards her. It caught the Tecalian instead, the alien screaming in pain and fright as massive jaws clenched around it.

He shook his head once, twice, then dropped the twisted mess onto the floor and proceeded to tear in with relish.

"George! I told you not to wander off! And did you _have_ to eat F'trant?" the Doctor shouted, and Rose did a double take as the Doctor waved his arms at the giant carnivorous dinosaur currently enjoying a Tecalian snack.

Rose caught one of his waving hands and pulled him away from the carnage. "Doctor, which way?" He was still looking over his shoulder at the Allosaurus, so Rose stepped on his foot – hard. "We have to leave _now__._"

"Right." He visibly pulled himself together, squeezed her hand once and took off down the hallway.

"So that was George, huh?" Rose said.

"That was," the Doctor said as they skidded around a burning pile of debris.

"His name isn't Al?"

The Doctor looked at her "Don't be ridiculous, Rose, he looks nothing like an Al. Honestly I don't know where you get these ideas."

Rose wasn't sure if the Doctor even _listened_ to the words that came out of his mouth sometimes.

The room they rushed into was one Rose was familiar with, the hangar. And it looked like the residents were hitting full-blown panic. The Doctor didn't go far, stopping at a panel next to the large entranceway and tapped furiously at the controls. "You still have the sonic?" he asked.

Rose pulled the screwdriver from her jacket pocket and slapped it into his hand. The Doctor thumbed through the settings and held it up to the computer port, the screens jumped for a moment before resetting themselves with something entirely different. "Pull that would you?" he asked, gesturing at the lever next to the panel.

The floor jerked under her feet as she pulled the lever into place. More explosions ripped through the ship, closer this time. "Sounds like the core is going," the Doctor said. "Not much time, but we are almost there."

The dinosaur nearest her, a small sauropod was throwing itself frantically against the bars of the cage and bellowing. The rest weren't much better off, the noise and smell of the place was overwhelming.

The Doctor smiled at her. "This type of mining ship is renowned for its transmat abilities. Good thing for us," the Doctor said. He hit one last button and the crumbling ship disappeared in a wash of light.

The light from the transmat faded and Rose found herself surrounded.

* * *

The Doctor had transmatted the dinosaurs in the ship down with them and the disoriented animals were reacting in a variety of ways to their new found freedom.

The valley was as ruined as the last time Rose had seen it, but the variety of life the Tecalians had managed to hoard distracted from the scorched earth and lack of plant life.

It was chaos as the massive inter-species herd of dinosaurs dispersed – Rose and the Doctor spent a good portion of their time dodging the giants as the animals charged, ambled, ran and wandered off, desperate to get away from the strange captivity they'd just experienced.

The Brachiosaurus that had been trying to rattle its cage so furiously on the ship bellowed; then plowed through the disoriented dinosaurs milling about, other dinosaurs scattering in its wake.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the way just as a small carnivorous dinosaur with horny knobs on its head charged ahead blindly – shrieking and growling as it ran for the hills surrounding the valley.

She _hurt_ all over, and the Doctor didn't look much better. He pulled her into a hug and she couldn't miss his wince as her hands brushed against the deep scratches along his back. Regardless of whatever pain he was in, he didn't let go. "Sometimes I wonder why I thought traveling again was a good idea," the Doctor said into her hair.

Rose pulled back and looked at him. "What does that mean, Doctor?"

"I left you down on the surface – anything could have happened. In fact, it did! You were hurt—you could have died Rose!"

"So could you!" she shot back, fingering one of the tears on the back of his jacket.

He opened his mouth to continue but she beat him to it. "Don't start, Doctor. I did what I had to do, and so did you. We're both still here, and so is the Earth. We're not going to stop traveling just because you think something could happen to me. Of course something is going to happen, it always does! That's life, it's a human life and one I want to live with you; in the TARDIS, traveling through space and time." She ran her fingers through his hair. "It's fantastic yeah? I mean, dinosaurs! And we saved them. You can't give that up, and neither can I."

The Doctor looked unconvinced, and Rose sighed. This battle was far from over, but they were both too tired and too hurt to deal with it in the middle of a destroyed Jurassic valley.

The remaining sauropods were straggling towards the hill in the distance when Rose heard a familiar sound. She turned toward it, dropping the Doctor's hand only to find a small feathery dinosaur jumping into her arms.

Little Boy burrowed against her, his tiny body practically quivering in excitement as he rubbed his head against the bottom of her chin and meeped excitedly.

The Doctor chuckled and ran two fingers along Little Boy's head, smoothing down the blue crest and causing the little dinosaur to arch and squirm as he hit just the right spot. "Looks like you made a friend too," he said.

"Not quite as big or fearsome as yours." She set Little Boy down on the ground. Rose took the Doctor's hand, squeezing gently as the two of them stood in the scorched dirt of a ruined valley, watching the small brown dinosaur cavort at their feet. "I'm sorry about George," she said.

"He was a rather good chap, except for that wandering off thing." The Doctor smiled at her, and together they started walking out of the valley. "It's too bad the transmats only work in certain parts of the ship," he said. "I'm not sure how I manage to always pick the ones that wander off."

She didn't remember the TARDIS being as far away as it was. Her feet ached and the rest of her body followed suit. Leaving the dead valley was a relief; it was a disturbing reminder of how close the Earth had come. Small ferns were the first signs of life, and the forest where they had parked the TARDIS appeared intact and un-scorched.

The blue of the TARDIS was immediately obvious as they finally reached the clearing. The Doctor paused outside the doors, key out, and looked down at Little Boy, who had caught a rather large beetle and was tearing into it.

"He can't come with us, Rose."

"I know," Rose said as she crouched down and held her hand out to Little Boy. He chirped, swallowing the beetle and rubbed his head against her outstretched fingers. She cupped his head in her hands and smiled down at him.

"You know, out of all the dinosaurs on that ship, Little Boy has the big future," the Doctor said as Rose turned and looked behind her.

The Doctor leaned back against the TARDIS. "Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus… all of the big heavies of the Jurassic. They won't last. By the end of the Cretaceous, they'll all be gone. This will all be gone. But this little guy, oh no not him. Well, his descendants, or maybe the descendants of a cousin of his… they'll live. And they'll evolve, and thrive.

Rose smiled, humoring him. "These descendants of Little Boy... do they have a name?"

The Doctor smiled and bounced on his heels. "Yup! _Birds_."

She stroked her hand over Little Boy's head once more before standing up and tugging the Doctor into a quick, fierce kiss. She smoothed her hand through the mess of his hair and smiled at him. He opened the TARDIS, and Rose stepped into the ship. She didn't look back.

The wind picked up as the TARDIS dematerialized, leaves and dirt swirling in the air as it vanished; leaving only a small, feathered dinosaur behind watching with its head cocked.

A roar echoed through the forest, and with a "Meep!" Little Boy darted into the underbrush.

End


End file.
